Question of the Week: Serving...Why is it SO Important?
There are a number of reasons why serving is important. For one, it is a proof or sign of our new life in Christ. Serving must come if you are connected to Jesus. If it doesn't, people begin to wonder if you're connected to Jesus at all or if you just say you're connected. For example, Paul writes to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 8 about this. He was sending some men to visit the church, and Paul wanted the church to show these men "proof of their love" so that the other churches could see it. In this context, Paul was challenging them to prove their servant love by giving financially as they said they would. Words can be cheap, but our actions give great value to our words. Similarly, it is one thing to talk about serving and loving Jesus, but it is something totally different to actually talk about it and do it.
I want to be careful here, because there are some that might turn this into a form of legalism, which is about just completing your "Serve Checklist," of sorts. The point here is not to focus on the actual serving, but rather the point is to focus on your heart and if you have a servant heart or not. I could easily make you do 10 serve projects this summer before coming back to youth group next fall, but if you don't have the right heart behind those actions, then those actions are empty and essentially bad fruit. That was the problem with the pharisees. They had all the right actions down, but their hearts were far from God.
All in all, serving is important, but a transformed, Christ-centered, servant heart is THE MOST IMPORTANT! For out of that heart will come a lot of serving and good fruit. If you have that heart, you need to nurture it and feed it by spending quality time with your Savior. If you don't have that heart, you need it, absolutely. Jesus is the only one who can give it to you, so meet with Him and tell Him that you want Him to change your heart. There is no magic prayer, only a repentant heart that willingly yields itself to God through Jesus by what He did for us on the cross.
Have you spent some intentional time with Jesus today?
If you have questions or ever just want to talk with us leaders, ever, about anything, let us know, and we'd be more than happy to listen and serve you in that way.
Grace and Peace,
Patrick
I think that serving is so important because it is a way of giving back to God. He has given you clothes and food and the least that you could do is give back to him by serving. Another reason for why it is so important is because it makes the world a better place. A place where we can live in harmony and show each other love. Everything that we talked about in youth group ties together why it is so important.
ReplyDeleteEllen
Service is the hallmark of the Kingdom of God. Jesus calls His followers to "Follow me." Jesus' entire ministry was a ministry of service - even to His death on a cross. Service places other first - it is a life freed of self-importance, self-servingness, self-centeredness and even self-righteousness. In Matthew 19 a rich young man asks Jesus how to get eternal life. Jesus says, "Obey the commandments." The commandment Jesus ended up on was "love your neighbor as yourself". The young man was quite sure that he had done so (self-righteousness). Jesus proved he didn't when he said "Sell your possessions and give to the poor and then follow me." The young man discovered he was not a citizen of the Kinghdom and that he would rather hold on to the things of this world rather than follow the King.
ReplyDeleteA person's heart is an indicator of who they really serve - self, or God and neighbor. If the heart is prone to serve God and neighbor, then that person is likely to be a follower of Jesus, the greatest Servant of all time (Philippians 2:7).
Wow guys! You both had a lot to say! Well for me, I think serving is important because it is our way of saying thank you to the people who serve us. As I sit here reading my Bible as I do whenever I leave a comment I found some interesting passages in the Gospels about Jesus and his servanthood. The heading of one of the passages is "God's Chosen Servant" It goes on to quote Isaiah and how God chose Jesus to be our servant. God called even the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to serve so it is important to serve and show that we honor God and recognize what Jesus did for us some 2000 years ago. Another passage I know is in there but just can't find it is the time when Jesus washed his diciples feet. Now just get the picture of a king washing peasants' feet and refusing to stop. Sounds weird right? Well that is exactly what Jesus did and we need to do just the same. I know there is plenty more passages is scripture about the importance of serving and I challange everybody to find maybe even just one verse about serving and bring it on Wednseday. This is going to be a good discussion. I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking everybody wants to be great, or at least great at something.
ReplyDeleteTo be great in God's eyes/ in His kingdom, we must be the servant of all.
That's how God is. His ways are totally different than ours. Following Jesus means we will look, act, talk different than most people around us. We usually try to fit in with the world, God calls us to be set apart from it.
Serving is like the mark or tatoo of a disciple of Jesus. It isn't glamorous or popular. It means giving up stuff. It's doing hard things. It makes us God's kind of great.
dort